Steps
by Andrea Christoph
Summary: Caught doing something she'd rather others not know about, Rikku cuts a deal with Auron. [Aurikku]


**

* * *

Steps

* * *

**

Something most people don't know about me is that I dance.

I don't mean the silly twirl around and get dizzy type dancing…though that's fun when alone on a rainy day. I mean practiced, poseable-doll hurt my feet so much every day type dancing. I used to have shoes for it when I was little. New pair every birthday, from my various uncles and aunts, and you know, I think they just rotated shoe duty. One year, my mother's sister, the next year from the other one. Pops only had one sibling, but my mom, you'd swear the whole of Home was related to her in some way.

And these shoes…they came in all sorts of styles. Tap shoes, or ballet slippers, or just some clunky brown boots to clomp around in. But always a new pair. It was around my twelfth birthday when they stopped giving me dance shoes. Ran out of dancing styles.

Now, when I said I practiced every day, I meant it. Every single day. How else could I maintain my picture perfect figure? Not that I don't enjoy dancing. Otherwise I wouldn't do it. It was harder when I joined Yunie's pilgrimage, as no one knew I danced, and I was _keen_ to keep it that way. Tidus would laugh, Wakka would roll his eyes, Lulu would smile patronizingly, and only Yunie would be excited.

And Auron. _Whoah_, Nelly, I don't think I'd hear the end of it if he saw.

Recap. On pilgrimage with these people twenty-four-seven. All people have no idea I dance.

So I didn't practice for stretches of three days on end, which made my feet itch. Naturally, I got hyper, but no one suspected why. When we stopped at the Thunder Plains Travel Agency, I saw this as an ideal chance. My own bedroom. Everyone asleep on his or her feet.

The instant I reached my room, I slammed the door shut behind me and propped a chair against it, then threw my tiny pack onto the mattress and picked out my tiny ballet slippers.

I wasn't planning ballet, though, that dancing style got boring quickly. I'm a high-energy person. I need a high-energy dance.

Once the slippers were secured on my bruised, beaten, bloody feet, I reached into the pack again and withdrew my hip skirt. A quick knot at the side and it was secure around my waist.

I turned and stepped to the centre of the room, perched on the balls of my feet. The hardwood flooring would have been slippery without my dainty little shoes. I glanced down at them, smiling.

Dancing is the only time I feel truly calm and serene. Hips moving to the sides, I let my arms drift up, wrists held alack, fingers outstretched. The movements were slow at first, just drifting in a figure eight pattern, and then I rose up on to my toes and took on a more frenzied pace, waist twisting back and forth.

"I don't know why they call it belly dancing," I mumbled, letting my head fall back slightly as I twisted and spun. I even added in a few kick twirls, laughing when I stumbled, giving a small exclamation of triumph when I managed to pull off a difficult move. The hip skirt jingled along with my moves, the little shards of metal attached to the fabric jostling against one another. Everything was so poetic, so frantic and fast paced.

I was so caught up dancing, I didn't even notice the open door, nor the very, very tall man standing there, face blank. At least, not until I landed a kick twirl _facing_ the man in question. I stumbled, froze in horror.

For a few seconds I stared at him, waiting for him to call out to the rest of the group. 'Hey, guys, come see, Rikku looks like an ass!' But this was Auron, he was always silent…at least, I prayed he'd stay silent on the one occasion I really didn't want to be seen.

"How did you get the door open?" I demanded, to break the wary silence, putting on my best angry face. "And how long have you been standing there?"

Auron merely eyed me, one hand still holding the doorknob. "When attempting to lock the door with a chair, it's of benefit if you put the chair under the knob, instead of just against it."

That said, he withdrew his hand and turned to leave. I ran forward, snatching his sleeve as he tried to get away. _Not a chance, bucko._ "You can't tell anyone."

"I saw a mere four seconds of your impressive flailing and leaping. There isn't much to tell."

"Hey!" How dare he insult the Great Dancer Rikku. "I'm a darn good dancer, mister. Probably better than anything you can do."

"That I'll concede." Haha, triumph. "I don't flail around, it's bad for the back." Or…not.

"You can't even form a fair judgment," I snarled, glaring. "You saw four seconds. And why were you trying to get into my room anyway!" Oh, Rikku, you're such a vixen, the men can't wait to get their hands on you.

"My room is below yours," he replied, a hint of amusement in his voice. "I came to investigate what the thumping and banging was."

"It's _called_-" I paused, realizing anyone could hear us out here in the hallway. Begrudgingly, I dragged Auron into the room and flung the door closed behind him. "It's _called _belly dancing, and I'm quite good at it." As an afterthought, I added, "So there."

"As previously stated, I saw only four seconds of your…belly flailing."

The man just never gave up. I was about to order him out of my room and a curse on his family and I got to eat all of his cake for the next week in recompense when he suddenly, out of nowhere, mumbled, "However, if I saw a longer version, perhaps I would be able to form a complete judgment based upon overall skill."

I considered this. I could show off my obvious skills, in the safety of my room, and either render him speechless, or unable to contain his bemused smirks. The first option was preferred, of course, but knowing Auron…

Wait, did he really think he'd get a free show that easily?

"I'll make you a deal," I murmured smoothly, cocking a hip out to the side and flipping my hair over my shoulder. "In exchange for one performance of my dancing skills- which are so obviously worth it –you must…retrieve me…um…"

Well, perhaps I should have considered what I wanted in return before I spoke. So I pondered it. What would be worth a show of my dancing?

"…a…uh…chimera's head. No, all three of them!" That was difficult enough.

Not even pausing, he said, "No deal."

Damn. He was a wily one. "Okay, okay, fine, lessee…how about…hm, how about a chimera's tooth? Just a small one, no huge fangs, and killing the thing is optional. It can't be that hard for a _legendary_ guardian."

Looking into that single, dark brown eye, I could actually see the wheels in his head turning, no matter how rusty and worn they were. I waited quite some time before he nodded.

I was actually surprised. He accepted? Did he really want to see me dance? There's a shocker- Sir Auron, connoisseur of the arts. I could already see him in the top hat with a cane, strolling down the streets of Bevelle, talking wildly about the latest piece of propaganda Yevon liked to call 'plays'.

"Okay!" Grinning, I stuck out my hand. "Shake on it, make it official."

He did that as well, not missing the chance to crush my tiny little palm in his glove. I bit my lip, still looking at Auron's face, silently daring him to grip harder while screaming in pain inwardly.

He finally let go and exited my room with speed not thought possible in a man that huge. I smiled to myself. Another victory for Rikku. And with that victory, I stumbled into my bed, lazily kicking off the hip skirt and ballet slippers without using my hands.

I didn't hear another mention of the 'flailing' from Auron after that, or our deal. He sat back when fights happened, letting Tidus take care of the beasts alongside the others, as if he was too good to take on such weak foes. Chimera after chimera attacked us, and he didn't even glance at them. In his old age it would be perfectly within reason for him to forget about the deal, but it was only a few days previous, and even for a senile old man that was pretty sad.

We stopped in Macalania Forest after a few days trekking over the Thunder Plains, all of us thoroughly tired. Lulu took to her duty of getting a fire ready, while the rest of us laid out our bedrolls and explored the area (well, a few of us anyway).

"You haven't been talking a lot, Rikku," Tidus said, nudging me with his elbow. We were just out of view of the camp, staring out at the glassy ice forest that glowed with the last vestiges of sunlight above.

"Just been busy," I replied cheerfully, mind still on the deal. "You know, busy minds don't rest, all that."

He laughed. "Yeah, I guess so."

Hands in our respective pockets, we trekked back to the camp. Lulu had managed to make a fire, and we all settled down around it. Except for one Mr. Tall Dark and Surly.

"Where's Sir Auron?" I asked, interrupting the conversation taking place.

"He's supposed to be scouting out a path to reach the lake," Yuna explained. "We were gonna go along with him, but he insisted on going alone. Said we all needed rest and he needed to do some fighting or he'd forget how."

Good enough explanation. I crawled on to my bedroll, settling under a thin blanket, and drifted off to sleep.

It must have been early morning when I was woken up by a large blue paw on my shoulder. Kimahri was crouched at my side, shaking me gently. I let out a yawn and sat up, eyes still half closed. "Time to go?"

We followed Auron (must have snuck in when we were all resting, or maybe keeping guard), who led us down a slippery path through the trees, a path that didn't even seem like one. Every few seconds it seemed I was getting scratched by icy branches. There was a lack of fiends, though, which made things uncomfortable if anything. No one felt like talking, save maybe Tidus, who could talk too much sometimes.

Emerging in the sunlight after an hour or two, another rocky path led around a corner, and after that…fields.

There was grass as far as the eye could see, stretching out into the horizon. And sunlight, too, there was _so_ much nice, warm, sunny sunlight.

The Calm Lands. A wrong turn. But…we deserved a break, more than most people, seeing as we were marching off to…_can't think about that._

Tidus grasped Yuna's hand and pulled her off behind him, running off down the cliffside towards the open fields below. Lulu and Wakka followed behind them slowly, laughing as the sun hit their faces. Kimahri merely sat down in the shade, legs and arms crossed, head bowed.

"Sir Auron took a wrong turn," he called. Auron, at my side, allowed himself a smile that he must have suspected no one saw.

"So I did. We'll have to rest while I re-evaluate our path." Stabbing his masamune into the ground, he turned and headed the opposite direction of the others, towards the very edge of the cliff. "Come Rikku, you can help." Blinking dumbly, I followed.

Down the cliffside, it turned out there was a staircase, built right into the stone, that led to a glen below, shady and out of the way. None of the others would find it unless they traced the cliff, and with the amount of fields out there, who of them would?

We reached the bottom, and Auron found a large rock to seat himself on, gaze trained on the horizon. Hesitantly, I perched myself beside him, sighing in disappointment that I wasn't going to get to enjoy the sun with the others. Seemed it was 'teach Rikku a lesson' time, or something of that ilk.

"It wasn't easy," he told me, now turning to look at my face and not the other direction. Raising an eyebrow, I asked what he meant. Auron didn't reply, only held out his gloved hand, palm upwards, fist clenched. As his fingers curled back, I could see, nestled in the depths of the worn brown leather, a tiny white tooth.

Eyes wide, I reached out and took it, holding it between two fingers. It was roughly the size of my pinky fingernail, teeny enough to have come from a baby chimera.

_Chimera…the deal, that's right…_

"Now that I'm done playing dentist to fiends, I believe I was supposed to receive one dance in exchange."

"That you are."

I hopped off the rock, grinning ear to ear, and retrieved my trusty hip skirt and slippers. They were on in seconds, and I took my classic beginning pose- arms in the air, wrists limp, fingers pointing outwards, head thrown back.

A pause, and then I spun into my routine, this time throwing in a few more fancy embellishments than I normally would use practicing. Slow circles, twisting, spinning, smoothly moving from one pose to the next. After a while, I added in the jumps, merging ballet with bellydancing with tap dancing…a medley of everything I'd ever learned or taught myself. More than what the deal required, but I was having too much fun.

I finally came to a stop, knelt before him, breathing as hard as I would fighting a fiend or running laps around Home. It was a good run, with no messups. I was proud.

I looked upwards, to gauge my audiences reaction, or what I could see of it from behind the silly cowl. What I saw was Auron's eye semi-wide, his eyebrow raised. And, seeing me watching him, I saw his chest fall. _Wow. He was holding his breath. I consider this show a complete success. And the award goes to Rikku._

"Well?" Standing straight, I untied my hip skirt and tossed it into the grass beside our stone seat. "What do you think? What is your 'judgement'?"

Auron considered that question carefully before answering, "It isn't what…was expected."

"That's a pretty good reaction. I'm unexpected. I'm unique. Twenty points Rikku!" Laughing, I twirled, then came to rest on my feet and smiled at my patient audience.

He reached up and unclasped his cowl, slipping it over his head and setting it on the rock at his side. If I weren't caught up with the glee of seeing his face in all of it's complete glory, I would have scowled at the coat ornament occupying my seat.

Cowl gone, he held out his hand, glasses slipping down on his nose so I could see his eye. Slightly puzzled, I took his hand, and he drew me close, the arm normally in his right sleeve now curled around the small of my back. Confusion city…not that I didn't like it. Auron, sans cowl, was actually quite handsome, in a gruff, worn way.

But then he picked my legs up, arm still under my back, and laid me down in the grass, intertwining the hand not under me with the one it had previously held. _Now this is a good reaction to a dance._

"You're the first person I danced for," I told him quietly, and again I saw that rare smile.

"You dance perfect."

Well, that wasn't a bad reaction either. _Not bad at all._ And, chuckling lightly, I leaned up and pressed my lips to his cheek.

* * *

_ This was written in response to a particularly fun challenge on the Livejournal Aurikku community. It's a one-shot, and I stake no claim to the Rikku-dancing scenario (as I won't use it again, so feel free to run off and write a fic with it). Hope you enjoyed._


End file.
